***For Immediate Release***
April 29, 2015
Contact, Jeff Sheldon
Communications Director, Nebraska Appleseed
Office: (402) 438-8853
Mobile: (402) 840-7289
jsheldon@neappleseed.org
Nebraska must improve accountability, effectiveness in Child Welfare financing
New primer offers recommendations to achieve better outcomes for children in foster care
LINCOLN — Wednesday, Nebraska Appleseed Child Welfare Director Sarah Helvey issued the following statement on the Nebraska child welfare financing primer released today by the Nebraska Children’s Commission.
“We all want the best possible outcomes for children in foster care, but to do that, Nebraska needs a more effective and accountable manner of financing our child welfare system,” Helvey said. “The primer shows right now we can’t see how more than $120 million of state child welfare dollars are being spent. We can’t make the best-informed decisions about how to prioritize our child welfare funding if we can’t see how our current dollars are being used.
“The primer also shows we are failing to take advantage of resources we could be using to make sure children in foster care are getting what they need to be healthy and secure,” Helvey said. “Making sure we are using available federal funds in partnership with an effective and transparent financing system from the state is important to the continued improvement of the child welfare system.”
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